Tag Archive for Jubilee

Where have the events of 2012 left British patriotism? British Future and thinktank Bright Blue held an event talking about whether the Olympics, Paralympics and the Jubilee have left us with a strong new sense of national pride, or whether the hype of 2012 was just that, and we're still just a country unable to deal with its history.

The Olympics, Paralympics and the Jubilee...has 2012 seen a new patriotism emerge in Britain? British Future and thinktank Bright Blue held an event where the debate spanned from discussing Olympic pride to how to deal with the spectre of the Empire to Conservative attitudes to the NHS.
The panel included Isabel Hardman, Editor of the Spectator blog Coffee House, Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng, and British Future Director Sunder Katwala. The event was chaired by Ryan Shorthouse, Director of Bright Blue.

As British Future heads off to one of the first Jubilee street parties of the weekend to celebrate with refugees in Brixton today, we have written to The Times in honour of the Queen's Jubilee to acknowledge the contribution that refugees have made to Britain during the Queen's reign.

Britain did not have a brilliant Olympic Games when London last hosted the Olympics in 1948, in terms of the medal table at least. The host nation won just three Olympic golds , all in rowing or sailing, which along with 14 silver medals and six bronzes left Britain ranking 12th at the end of the games. But those first post-war Olympics since Hitler’s Games in Berlin 1936 was a time when the value of taking part was never better understood. The Houses of Parliament figured prominently on the official Games poster designed by Walter Herz, a Czech refugee from fascism, as Dr Cathy Ross of the Museum of London has noted.

Both the Olympic Games and the Jubilee are expected to lift the British mood in 2012, but the British Future poll suggests Seb Coe's Olympic spirit may just be pipped by Jubilee pride in the Queen, if only by a short head.
68% of people expect the Queen's diamond jubilee to lift the national mood, while 64% say the same about the Olympics, according to the Hopes and Fears poll published by the British Future think-tank on Monday.